Making: Still nothing. I should probably just delete this stupid category!!
Reading: Not what I expected to pick up next but have gotten sucked into “The Rain Before It Falls” by Jonathan Coe. Big fan of Coe, his writing just invites you in… Right now in the “epistolary” section where Rosamond has dictated onto tape her memories of her cousin Beatrix and herself, focused by photographs from the past…
Watching: Just caught up on Gossip Girl which I hadn’t been watching (thank you iTunes). Frivolous but fun. LonelyBoy Dan Humphrey is my new crush! (He was born the year I graduated high school! Wince!) Planning to see Michael Clayton this afternoon…before rushing home for FNL of course.
Listening: To lots of Joy Division and New Order and The Replacements and old, old U2 and the Cocteau Twins and The Smiths, among others, as recent viewing of Control has sent me back in the day. Or, as one of my friends likes to call it, I’ve been “College-ing It Out”.
Category Archives: Tunes
In Concert: The Polyphonic Spree
Two-word review: Glorious Cacophony.
Three-word review: Sufjan on Speed.
Eight-word dream: Goal in Life, Become Member of Spree Choir.
Thank you, Fuel/Friends!
If you’re a David Gray fan, you want to head over to I Am Fuel, You Are Friends today to check out some new David Gray covers and hear about his new covers album (on which he sings my very favorite all-time Bob Dylan song “Buckets of Rain”). Oh yeah, I ordered it.
Looooove David Gray. Although the time I saw him live was not great. He had a new album coming out two weeks later, so he played pretty much only new songs. That no one in the audience had heard yet. Because the album wasn’t out. And wouldn’t be. For two weeks. It subdued (and confused?) the crowd. I mean, he didn’t even play “White Ladder.” Or “Babylon.” Although it did not make me love his music any less, it wasn’t a night that blew me away.
Selected Sampler Singles – Paste #32
New (to me) Songs I’m Diggin’:
“I Wanna Marry You All Over Again” Derek Webb (country twang)
“Ordinary Day” Dolores O’Riordan
“It’s Not True” William Fitzsimmons (ouch, so tender)
“Just Around the Corner” Low Stars (rockabilly)
“Somewhere to Lay Down” Gina Villalobos (husky)
“Run Run Run” Haunt
“14” Paula Cole (I never buy her albums, but I like select singles!)
Old Friends:
“Everybody Knows” Ryan Adams
“Closer” Travis
“Who You Are” Cary Brothers
from Paste 32.
À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…
Making: Still nothing.
Reading: Realized I have two Jake Arnott books on the to-be-read shelf but couldn’t remember enough about the book that came before them…so back I went for a reread of #1: “The Long Firm” by Jake Arnott, ’60s mob scene in swingin’ London. Given the boarding pass stuck inside, looks like I bought and read this one back in 2004. (Yup, looks like it.) Still really enjoying it the second time around.
Watching: Lots of TV. Plus have already been to…four movies at the Chicago Film Festival (1, 2, 3 and #4 not reviewed yet) and have tickets to two more (a documentary about jump rope competitions (!!) today and the Joy Division biopic on Tuesday)…
Listening: The new Band of Horses. Over and over. Not anything else really.
Have I mentioned
just loveloveLOVING the new Band of Horses album?
Oh, Yes, I have. I do. Yes.
Band of Horses’ new album…SOUNDS LIKE…what Explosions in the Sky would sound like if they had vocals.
This is true of more than one song on this album*, but particularly the opening bars to “No One’s Gonna Love You” sound so much like Explosions in the Sky. I can’t decide exactly which EitS song… maybe “Look into the Air”. Such the same mood.
*also the final bars of “Lamb on the Lam”…
First Impression: Band of Horses “Cease to Begin”
It’s really great. I loved their first album but this definitely takes things up a few notches. Melodic and intense. Some songs are what I imagine Explosions in the Sky would sound like if they added a vocal track. A couple songs remind me of Pink Floyd, I admit sheepishly (not my fault! I did date Pink Floyd’s Biggest Fan!). And there’s one song with Eagles-esque harmonies (“Peaceful Easy Feelin'” type harmonies is what I’m sayin’).
Totally love it.
Although it seems kinda short. I want more!
Lyric of the Day.
I’d like to think I’m a mess you’d wear with pride…
-Band of Horses “I Go to the Barn Because I Like the”
Listening to their old album all day long in preparation for buying the new one from iTunes tonight!!
In Concert: Christine Kane.
Lovely voice, great style. Her guitar playing skills really blew my mind. Very much in the storytelling folk/country/songwriter style, each song pictured a whole world for you. Some sad and thoughtful, some sassy and upbeat. Totally enjoyable!